The Fighting Game Archetypes (part 2)

Check the first part here:
bluerelativity.deviantart.com/…

11) The Dark Side
Being mostly a sub-boss or even a special, unplayable character, he's the "twisted side" of the hero, his corrupted alter ego.
Sometimes only a "what if" character, he represents the main hero after he has fallen to his dark side.
(Evil Ryu, Devil, Devil Jin, Dark Ash, Orochi Kyo and any other "possessed" character in the Kof series)

12) The Anti-Hero
To some extent this category could coincide with the "hero palette swap" character.
But sometimes that's not the case. Maybe because the character has a totally different background from the main character, maybe because he's morally a neutral, if not evil character.
Guile and Sub-Zero are perfect characters to take as example.
The first has all the features to be the perfect "hero" (being de facto more influential than the main character story wise and even becoming the main protagonist of the game in some canon and non canon stories). He just pays his price for not being so iconic as Ryu, or, well, for having come late to the party.
Sub-Zero, instead, was born as an evil character to became neutral and even "good" in his second incarnation (post Bi-Han... namely, from MK2 on).
But even the evil (let's say opportunistic) Bi Han was charismatic and outstanding enough to acquire a legion of fans.
He has got a strong and detailed story by his own, he's got a deeply explored personality, and his relationship with Scorpion makes him a perfect anti-hero, being this one not only his "palette swap" character and polar opposite (frost vs ice), but also his nemesis (we can almost say he's like "Ken and Sagat in one").
While Ryu kept his SF "main character throne", Sub-Zero and Scorpion de facto replaced the "hero" Liu Kang in terms of popularity, leading a parallel plot on their own that most fans consider way better and more interesting than the main story.
Other examples of anti-heroes would be Iori Yagami, Hwoarang and Lei from Tekken, Mitsurugi (after Soul Blade he swaps places with Siegfried, leaving him the "front cover" place from Soul Calibur on) and many others.
P.S.: of course I've always seen Sub-Zero as the anti-hero and Scorpion as his nemesis, but of course my reasoning works also if you swap the two, if you like the Shirai Ryu warror more.
(Guile, Cody, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Jax, Sonya, Rose)

13) The Second Female
This could have been called "The Female Palette Swap" as well. As I said, the youngers between you won't remember this, but there was pretty much only one female in first fighting games (see the "Femme Fatale" section in the first part).
Each game had its own Eve. Then after the "first woman", a second female was added in the next installment. The funny thing is that, while she wasn't intended to be a palette swap, her hair color and her ethnicity was always exactly opposite to the ones of the main lady.
(Cammy, Blue Mary, Kitana, Michelle in the first Tekken, Ryoko from World Heroes 2)

14) The Young Girl (before you ask, yes, includes Schoolgirls and Tomboys)
I pondered a lot about calling this archetype the "Schoolgirl" after so many suggestions from users, but after all there would have been too many characters left behind (Juri Sakazaki and Asuka Kazama amongst the others).
The "Young Girl" seems perfect to include that kind of character, depicted as a naive and kawai little girl, opposed to the over sexualised and mature "main" female character. To some extent it can include also malicious and more cocky characters like Karin and Lili from Tekken, and also tomboys like Makoto and Akira Kazama.
(Sakura, Karin, Ibuki, Xiaoyu, Asuka, Lili, Talim, Xianghua, many others)

15) The Long Ranged Character
I never listed archetypes based on fighting style alone, but many long ranged characters actually had the "long range factor" somewhat explained by their background, so that gave me a lot to think. Either being simply armed with a weapon, or indian yoga masters able to extend their limbs through meditation, or being living genetic experiments, what really matters here is that their creators really tried to put some reason behind their long range capabilities, so I'm here to make their efforts worth by creating a specific archetype just for their pupils. We can safely say all Long Rangers were based on Dhalsim.
(Dhalsim, Necro, Billy and Lilly Kane, Duo Lon, Kilik, Seong Mina)

16) The Small Framed
The Small Frame characters fall down into a different archetype just because of their smaller hitbox being relevant to the point to actually influence the strategy of the opponent.
Being them kids, small girls, little beasts or old men, I remember the small framed characters to be always the reason for intense ragequits back in the days, despite being far from being overpowered characters.
(Viewtiful Joe, Amateratsu, Rocket Raccoon, Roll, Gon, Choi, Chin)

17) The Racial Archetype
Ok, I think there's really no need to explain this category. Street Fighter 2 alone is literally plenty of racial stereotypes. The fat Sumo wrestler from Japan, the savage Brazilian, the Indian yoga master (and let's not even talk about the backgrounds). After that, pretty much each game had one or more racial archetype, with the kind hearted, willing to save his/her land Native American being one of the most abused (maybe on par with the angry afro boxer).
(T Hawk, E Honda, Zangief and the whole SF2 cast, El Fuerte, Michelle and Julia Chang, Chief Thunder and A TON of others)

18) The Agent / The Soldier
Soldiers are pretty popular in video games, and fighting games make no exception. Cops, secret agents, military forces... any fighting game around more or less includes a character that belongs to one of these categories. Their fighting style may be pretty diverse, but they share in common at least some "army based" move sets and often own an arsenal of tools varying from actual weapons to most uncommon devices (Sonya Blade or C Viper).
(Guile, Charlie, Cammy, C Viper, Rolento, Sonya, Jax, Striker, Bryan Fury, Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Still, Leona Heidern, Whip, Bayman)

19) The Joke Character
This seemed to be a pretty popular topic amongst users here. I had TONS of requests to introduce the Joke Character in the list, and I have to admit I was pretty reluctant since its poor representation around. But still joke characters do exist, so they deserve a place here. The key factor they share in common is basically being funny, unusual, and, well... useless.
(Dan, Doctor Bosconovitch, Norimaro, Bad Box Art Megaman)

20) The Mime
Ok you can try to explain it by making your character a soul devourer, or a master of combat styles, or a... well... wooden puppet who likes to mimic other characters' moves. What really matters here is to distinguish between the "random model" (Mokujin/Olcadan) and the "active model" (Tsung), two different ways to see the "Mime" character, put there to add some challenge and/or diversity in the first case, and some additional "strategy on demand" in the second one.
(Mokujin, Shank Tsung, Chameleon, Olcadan/Edge Master, Kilik in SC5)


Other archetypes left behind for reasons I'll explain later:

21) The Pet Character
(Nakoruru, Carl Clover, Ms. Fortune, Eddie from GG, Z.W.E.I.)

22) The Self-Empowering Character
(Bo Rai Cho, Chin, Hakan)

23) The Female Duo
(Mature & Vice, Juni & Juli, Nina & Anna)

24) The Boxer
(Balrog, Dudley, Michael Max, Heavy D, TJ Combo, a TON of others)

25) The Dancer
(Sinclair, Elena, Eddy Gordo, Christie Monteiro, Zafina)